Grade School Paper

Laughter is like changing a baby's diaper. It doesn't permanently solve any problems, but it makes things more acceptable for a while.

I recently found this pithy, unattributed quote while flipping through a Newfoundland Celebrity Recipes cookbook. Which just goes to prove that you can never tell where you're going to find inspiration, even if it's not the exact kind you were looking for.

Hello, my name is Alanis Walker, and this is my blog. You wouldn't know it by the way I've abandoned it lately, but [tinkling laughter] that is neither here nor there. Come, sit beside me and let's chat.

I've been doing all sorts of things this summer. Mostly enjoying the lovely oppressive heat (and praising my cute boyfriend for installing an air conditioner in my bedroom). It's been a lot of fun attending celebrations (MuchMusic Video Awards After-Party), travelling (Deer Lake, Newfoundland; Silver Lake, Ontario; and the Muskokas), and generally being a student of life (drinking).

And you? Why that's just super!

In and among my various adventures I've had occasion to catch up on a lot of reading. Let me just run down for you the latest stuff that I've allowed to permeate my brain cells (in no particular order):

The Sisterhood of the traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
Circles: 50 Round Trips Through History, Technology, Science, Culture by James Burke (Of Connections fame, not the mystery writer)
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
The Art of Virtue by Benjamin Franklin
The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons by Robert M. Sapolsky

I realize the term "a lot of reading" is relative here. To some that's about five lifetime's worth. To my friend Terry it's a nice, light snack. I'm somewhere in the middle. It's not that I don't like reading, I just don't give it the time it deserves when there are computers to play on and television shows to watch and beer to drink and friends to chat with, etc. etc.

But in any case I learned a few things from each that I thought it would be fun to share, such as (in no particular order):

- I've had a very similar line of thought as Ben Franklin did, all on my very own. Which teaches me not that I'm as smart as he was, but that I'm not necessarily as dumb as I thought, either. (And that, once again, there ain't nuthin' new in this crazy ol' world.)
- It's really hard for me to follow a fight scene in a book. I guess it's just not that important to me.
- Even gorillas worry about being liked and accepted.
- It never occurred to me to think that when someone has open-heart surgery there has to be some way to keep that person's blood pumping while they have it. I mean, it makes perfect sense, but it never occurred to me. I guess I just don't spend enough time thinking about cutting into other humans as I should.
- You cannot judge a teeny-bopper book by it's teeny-bopper cover.
- Wow, this is just like National Treasure only with priests and the pleasing absence of Nicholas Cage.

And lots, lots more. I even read the latest Harry Potter tome, but all I learned from that was that J.K. Rowling is running out of supporting characters to kill. Oh, what fun to be had in a book!

Anywho, it's been a wonderful, funderful summer for all of us here in Ontario and we took full advantage of the yummy weather. We all feel an enormous amount of guilt in "wasting" any of the warm summer weather by staying indoors, resting, doing laundry, attending to bills, etc. (Heck, we can do that when we're dead or, say, in the middle of winter.)

Instead I laughed a lot, travelled a lot, and spent a lot of time admiring nature and other whatnots. I saw an amazing display of the Northern Lights, I saw my first real, live moose, and I rubbed elbows with celebrities no one's ever heard of. It was a mixed-up hodgepodge of various things, much like this post. All in all, it was the best Canadian summer ever.

And that's what I did on my summer vacation.

The end.